Protection Induced by Synthetic Peptides Corresponding to Three Serotypes in Foot and Mouth Disease Virus

Abstract

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) is a highly contagious disease which primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals. It is a disease of major economic importance. Mortality from FMD is low, except in young animals where it can be quite high. The disease is debilitating, spreads rapidly and requires only a short incubation period for establishing visible disease symptoms in infected animals. An outbreak of the disease can be economically devastating. In countries where the disease is endemic, the commonly used method of control is vaccination with an inactivated virus preparation. FMD vaccines, while proven to be effective, are not without risk. Outbreaks of the disease have been linked to vaccines which were improperly inactivated. Infections have also been traced to the escape of virus from production facilities. For these reasons, the developments in synthetic approaches to vaccination have attracted the attention of scientists working towards the control of this disease (Bittle et al.,1982; Pfaff et al., 1985; DiMarchi, et al., 1986).